Dublin Theatre Festival 2026: Refuge

Mary Murray, Sabah Qalo, Hannah von Peinen, Holger-Kraft in Refuge. Image, Andreas-Etter

****

There's something disturbingly thrilling about Deirdre Kinahan's politically fused tragedy Refuge. A joint production between Ireland's Fishamble: The New Play Company and Germany's Staatstheater Mainz exploring the bloody feud that arose when 18th-century German Protestant settlers, at the behest of English colonisers, were given land in rural Limerick. Known as The Palatines, they came to Ireland to escape persecution in Germany for their faith. Refuge fearlessly engaging with questions of culture, identity, power and immigration. Its tale, dramatically, echoing Romeo and Juliet; its thorny themes and direct address structure evoking the medieval Morality, Mystery, or Miracle play.

Mary Murray and Sabah Qalo in Refuge. Image, Andreas-Etter

Throughout, twinning is the name of the game. Echoes and reflections of the past paired with present moments reveal history invariably repeating itself. Kinahan's taut script employing repetition to highlight how the song remains the same. Religion then, as now, still our biggest motivator to hate. Matthias Werner's fairytale stage design utilising clever mirroring effects; dual stone arches, a tree split in the centre, two boxes either side. Matthew Williamson's taut, snapping choreography underscored by pain mirrored as Sabah Qalo's injured Zabi arises from the floor establishing a cracking opening image. The play's central tensions revealed as one man's immigrant is accused of being another man's invader.

Holger Kraft, Aidan Kelly, Matthew Williamson, Hannah von Peinen, Sabah Qalo, Mary Murray in Refuge. Image, Andreas-Etter

Compositionally, director Jim Culleton navigates the dual demands of direct address and dramatic scenes with subtly and sensitivity, activating crucial scenes whilst ensuring Kinahan's didacticism never feels like lecturing. Kinahan’s story within a story using a supernatural device in which a young man from Kabul, living in Ireland for six years, has fled an attack in Dublin. Mary Murray as the thick-accented Molly, a Samaritan bringing help to Sabah Qalo's injured Zabi, establishing an ongoing sub-theme of the Irish taking care of the displaced. Holly guided to the unconscious Zabi by the fairytale ghost of Hannah von Peinen's eternally youthful Hannah, also known as Lady Palatine. Refuge segueing into its central story in which Aidan Kelly's towering Herr Ireland falls for the spritely Lady Palatine in the early 1700s. The devoted wife of Holger Kraft's loveable, hard-working Peter, an immigrant determined to make this new land his home. Grateful to the English whilst indifferent to the colonised Ireland. Yet von Peinen's  faithful wife and mother of two sons, one deceased, finds herself drawn to the rebellious Herr Ireland with his bear-like charm. A man, like her, viscerally attached to the land, knowing its ditches, streams, herbs and plants. Language less a barrier so much as a temporary inconvenience as tokens, touches and shreds of cloth say all that's needed to be said. If only life were so simple. And indeed it is, until competing claims to home, resources, rights, freedoms, justice and equality play out the same old song. Religion's chosen people and colonising capitalists opting for violence as the first resort. As always, women and children are its first victims.

Mary Murray, Sabah Qalo Hannah von Peinen,in Refuge. Image, Andreas-Etter

Throughout, Refuge proves a visual, fairytale delight. Ulrich Schneider's mood-deepening lights, Lina Maria Stein's smartly detailed costumes, including an excellent mask, complement Werner's stunning set and Williamson's superb choreography. If Axel Heintzenberg's sound design adds perfectly placed accents, Steve Wickham's score, played live on stage, proves a mixed bag. Though musical structures inform the work, and music is often successfully placed, as when percussive bodhrán beats heighten violent tensions, music seriously overplays its hand. Too often drowning the action in twee sentimentality. A double fault given Kinahan's script doesn't need the emotional support. Action having far more punch when played without music's overpowering, heavy-handed manipulation framing where, how and what to feel.

Aidan Kelly and Hannah von Peinen,in Refuge. Image, Andreas-Etter

If Refuge charts a strained incident in Irish-German relationships, its tender and beautifully articulated love story reveals the real truth of that abiding relationship. Echoed (there's that mirroring again) in the reciprocal relationship between Fishamble: The New Play Company and Germany's Staatstheater Mainz. Such relationships crucial for how theatre moves forward in the global village of the 21st century. How else to enjoy the irresistible chemistry between Kelly, von Peinen and Kraft? Or encounter hauntingly brilliant talents like von Peinen, whose ghostly performance borders on the supernatural? Her soft expressions lighting up like the infectious, first flush of love, transformed in an instant into the hardened stare of a crone's cowl of grief. One moment a lithe, limber, impish innocent, the next a hard-willed, formidable woman caught in tensions not of her making.

Sabah Qalo and Hannah von Peinen,in Refuge. Image, Andreas-Etter

Some will say Refuge ultimately cops out, shifting its concerns from the broadly political to the tragically personal. That its stated desire for peace is a clichéd soft landing when what we really want is justice or equality. Look at Northern Ireland where peace has allegedly arrived, but serious problems persist. But Refuge never sets out to answer all the questions, only to raise such questions. Not to resolve, but to begin an uncomfortable critical conversation in search of resolution. A conversation where we can either communicate with each other from a place of love or battle it out in blood and hate. Either way, we have to address what we'd rather ignore, including conflicting notions of national identity. An enriching theatrical experience, Refuge offers a brave beginning to some unsettling, yet rewarding, inter- and cross-cultural conversations. Here's hoping for many more to come.

Refuge, by Deirdre Kinahan, presented by Fishamble: The New Play Company & Staatstheater Mainzruns, run at The Pavilion as part of Dublin Theatre Festival 2026 until October 11th

For more information visit Dublin Theatre Festival 2026